Iraq Oil

Iraq could overtake Russia as the world's second-largest oil supplier behind Saudi Arabia by the 2030s, nearly tripling its current output, according to a report from the International Energy Agency. In what the Paris-based group calls a “landmark study,” Iraq could double its production by the end of the decade, reaching 6.1 million barrels a day by 2020 from the 3 million barrels it currently turns out. The country, currently the third-largest oil exporter, could top 8.3 million barrels by 2035, making it “by far the largest contributor to global supply growth,” according to the report.

Iraq could overtake Russia as the world's second-largest oil supplier behind Saudi Arabia by the 2030s, nearly tripling its current output, according to a report from the International Energy Agency. In what the Paris-based group calls a “landmark study,” Iraq could double its production by the end of the decade, reaching 6.1 million barrels a day by 2020 from the 3 million barrels it currently turns out. The country, currently the third-largest oil exporter, could top 8.3 million barrels by 2035, making it “by far the largest contributor to global supply growth,” according to the report.

The Security Council unanimously voted to renew a plan enabling Iraq to sell limited amounts of oil to buy food and medicine for its people. But the 15-member body delayed a decision on whether Iraq could sell more oil until after it receives a report from Secretary-General Kofi Annan, due Jan. 30. The resolution allows Iraq to sell $2 billion worth of oil over six months.

Plainclothes security men wait in the lobby of the Mnawi Basha Hotel. Giant clocks advertise the time in New York and Dubai. A British man brags loudly on his cellphone that he has just closed a deal with the Iraqi government, then rushes out to a convoy of waiting cars, accompanied by a clutch of aides in business suits. The five-star hotel percolates with the ambitions and worries of barracudas looking to make a killing in southern Iraq's new boom market. Their words flip like a schizophrenic's from visions of dollars to disaster and back again.

Oil Minister Amir Mohammed Rashid said Saturday that Iraq expected to resume oil exports under its oil-for-food deal with the U.N. within a week. Rashid, speaking to reporters after holding talks with Jordanian Energy Minister Mohammed Hourani, also said Iraq's aid distribution plan was sent two days earlier to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan for approval. He said Iraq would not start oil exports until Annan approved the plan. The U.N.

Political infighting blocked lawmakers from opening debate Wednesday on legislation to oversee the oil industry as Iraqi and U.S. leaders used the Fourth of July holiday to call for reconciliation among Iraq's feuding factions. An influential group of Sunni Muslim clerics, the Assn. of Muslim Scholars, joined the fray surrounding the oil bill Wednesday by issuing a fatwa, or religious edict, forbidding legislators to vote for it.

Iraqi officials blamed loyalists of jailed former leader Saddam Hussein on Sunday for sabotaging a vital stretch of oil pipeline and blowing up a huge gasoline storage tank in Baghdad. The attacks that set the north-south oil pipeline ablaze in at least four places threatened to worsen an already dire shortage of gasoline that has angered Iraqi drivers and fomented criticism that the U.S.-led coalition is mismanaging postwar reconstruction.

The United Nations agreement to allow Iraq to begin its first oil exports in six years should hasten the decline of gasoline prices in California, but there won't be a steep plunge at the pumps, analysts said Monday. Prices throughout the oil marketing system had already begun to fall for reasons unrelated to Iraq, and the addition of Iraqi oil to the pool will improve supplies worldwide, analysts said.

Re "Immunity for Iraqi Oil Dealings Raises Alarm," Aug. 7: Kudos to The Times for giving front-page coverage to President Bush's executive order granting U.S. oil companies blanket immunity from lawsuits and criminal prosecution in connection with the sale of Iraqi oil. If anyone is still blind or naive enough to believe the U.S. invaded Iraq to promote liberty and democracy, this article should dispel the last shred of doubt as to the real reason....

Chevron Corp. has agreed to pay $30 million in the largest of five settlements in the government's investigation of illegal kickbacks made to Iraq in the U.N.'s oil-for-food program. The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday said Chevron settled charges brought under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act without admitting or denying allegations that kickbacks were made as part of oil purchases in 2001 and 2002. But the U.S.

Political infighting blocked lawmakers from opening debate Wednesday on legislation to oversee the oil industry as Iraqi and U.S. leaders used the Fourth of July holiday to call for reconciliation among Iraq's feuding factions. An influential group of Sunni Muslim clerics, the Assn. of Muslim Scholars, joined the fray surrounding the oil bill Wednesday by issuing a fatwa, or religious edict, forbidding legislators to vote for it.

Legislation to manage Iraq's oil industry won Cabinet approval Tuesday and could go before the parliament for ratification within days, but political wrangling raised the possibility of delays in passing the long-stalled measure. The legislation is the less controversial of two measures covering Iraq's oil wealth. The second measure would set up the mechanism for ensuring that oil profits are distributed properly.

El Paso Corp. will pay $7.7 million to settle charges that it indirectly paid nearly $5.5 million in illegal surcharges to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's government under the U.N. oil-for-food program, U.S. officials said Wednesday. El Paso bought about 21.4 million barrels of Iraqi crude oil from third parties participating in the defunct $64-billion United Nations program, the Securities and Exchange Commission said.

Iraq may open its potentially lucrative oil business to foreign investors by the end of the year, Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman said after a day of meetings with Iraqi counterparts in Baghdad. "Iraq will only realize its very considerable potential as an oil producer with the help of investors," he said. "They need to pass a hydrocarbon law under which foreign companies can invest."

A Swiss commodities trading company pleaded guilty Thursday to violating U.S. federal law in connection with the United Nations oilfor-food program for Iraq and agreed to pay penalties of nearly $20 million. Trafigura admitted in U.S. District Court in Victoria, Texas, that it had falsely told Houston-area energy companies that more than 500,000 barrels of imported Iraqi oil had been obtained in compliance with the humanitarian program that was set up after the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

In streets teeming with blue-jeaned demonstrators and in European Parliament halls filled with blue-suited politicians, men and women wave signs reading "No war for oil" or the snappier "No blood for oil." Allegations that the United States needs a war with Iraq just to fill the tanks of SUVs, and intends to pay for the war with Iraq's own oil, are sufficiently common that Washington should address them directly and often.

A mortar attack set ablaze a major petroleum facility in the northern city of Kirkuk on Thursday, stopping refining at the plant and further damaging Iraq's beleaguered oil industry. Iraqi oil workers were still fighting the fire late Thursday, and U.S. officials held high-level meetings in Baghdad to assess the damage. An Iraqi executive with the North Oil Co. called the incident the "most severe attack we have ever faced on an oil installation."

Re "Kurdish Oil Deal Shocks Iraq's Political Leaders," Dec. 1 I do not understand modern American conservatism. At home, it promotes an "ownership society." In Iraq, it endorses the Marxist notion that the means of oil production must remain in the hands of the Iraqi government, leaving unresolved whether control is left with the central or the regional governments. The result is predictable: an ugly fight over Iraq's vast oil wealth. There's a better way. Put the means of oil production -- i.e., one share of stock in the Iraqi oil industry -- into the hands of individual Iraqi citizens.